A mother who killed her newborn son by smothering him with cling film has been sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail.
Ineta Dzinguviene, 38, was sentenced by Lady Poole at the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday. Ineta pleaded guilty to culpable homicide on the basis of diminished responsibility at an earlier hearing in Edinburgh.
Paulius was just hours old when Dzinguviene placed a piece of cling film over his mouth and smothered him to death at her home in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, in April 2010. She was first remanded in custody on April 15, 2010.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission had referred her case to the appeal court after fresh evidence was obtained about her mental state at the time of her son’s death, which showed she suffered from complex post-traumatic stress disorder after suffering years of domestic and sexual abuse.
She has now effectively served her sentence, which was backdated to when she was first remanded in custody on April 15, 2010.
Although your culpability at the time of your offending was diminished by your mental state, the harm you caused was extreme. Killing a defenceless baby is behaviour which society cannot tolerate.
At the sentencing on Tuesday, Lady Poole told the court: “You had an upbringing characterised by neglect, and then a troubled marriage.”
Although your culpability at the time of your offending was diminished by your mental state, the harm you caused was extreme Court added.
“After you killed Paulius, you hid his body in a bag amongst rubbish in the common stairway where you lived.
“Killing a defenceless baby is behaviour which society cannot tolerate. You must be punished for what you did.”
Source: The Independent